The Diary of a Mad Tragically White Drummer

PROGRESS!!! Today Will went in to the studio and laid down his drum tracks. It went great! Both drummer and engineer left happy with their bellies full of ROCK SAUCE!!! He took along a camera, but he was busy making the best record of all time, so no photos of this historic event were captured. Fortunately, this evening William wrote me the following:

I wrote a blog. Here it is:

Hello, my name is Will and I play drums. Today I recorded drum tracks for Saints At Sundown. I always enjoy the studio. I enjoy the challenge of nailing a perfect take (though I don't think it's ever happened), and I love dialing in a good and heavy drum sound... It's loads of fun to do, and it's cool to listen to the playback and hear the kit sounding all professional and whatnot. 

Well, I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately. I brought my camera, but left it in the truck, and didn't even think about until I left the studio. Oops! Well, since I don't have any photographs, what I can do is be a bit of gear nerd for all you gear nerds and tell you all the gear nerdy details about the kit I used today. 

The drums are my trusty Ludwig Vistalites. 10x14 tom, 16x16 floor tom, and a 14x26 kick drum. The toms have clear Remo Emperor batter heads with clear Ambassadors underneath, and the kick has an Aquarian Force 1 batter, with a Force 1 front head. There's an offset 4" hole on the front head for miking, and no additional muffling on it (or any of my other drums, for that matter- I like to move as much air as possible). A lot of drummers don't understand not having a pillow or something in the kick, but I like to use 2 self muffling heads to soak up any unwanted resonance, and this allows the inside of the drum to be free of clutter. It makes it easier to mic up, it makes it louder (ALWAYS a good thing!), and it makes the kick end up sounding meatier. We all love meat, so that's definitely a good thing. 

The snare I used is my 5.5x14 Tama Copper shell, with die cast hoops. I've got some Puresound snares on it, a coated Remo Emperor batter (again, no muffling), and a Hazy Ambassador snare side head. This snare has a pretty thick shell, which makes it cut, but the copper shell makes it a little darker, and a little more natural sounding than most other steel shelled snares I've heard. It is a beast that can not be tamed. 

Just to reiterate, for any drummer out there who might be reading this and wondering why I don't muffle anything: Move air, son! A good recording always starts with a good source. Your drums are going to get mixed down, have a bunch or different effects thrown on them, and then they'll be compressed all to heck and back, so why on Earth would you want to suck even more life out of them right at the start?! 

Anyhow, the cymbals I used are 14" Soultone Hi Hats, 18" and 20" Sabian APX crashes, and a 22" APX Solid Ride. Nothing fancy. Meat and potatoes. This was the first I've recorded with my Sabians, and I was really impressed. Very clean and musical. 

And, as always, my sticks are Pro Mark American Hickory 2Bs with wood tips. 

So there you go. Tracking these tunes was a load of fun, and I'm stoked to hear the final product. Hope you'll enjoy it!

So, there you have it folks. That's the real stuff right there! Yes, we are nerdy. Speaking of which, I have to go. Star Wars is on SPIKE tonight. That is not a joke.

Love,
Saints At Sundown